New Conversation: Bridging Higher Education Research to the Reality of Modern Learners
New Conversation: Bridging Higher Education Research to the Reality of Modern Learners
In February 2025, Z.W. Taylor interviewed Allyson Cornett, Director of Research at Trellis Strategies, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing higher education and strengthening the workforce in the United States. They discussed Trellis Strategies' focus on financial wellness and its impact on student success. Cornett, who joined Trellis in 2017 and has a background in applied anthropology, shared insights from her experience leading mixed-methods research projects across institutions nationwide. The conversation explored how Trellis Strategies helps colleges and universities understand and address the challenges faced by "modern learners" - today's diverse student population who often have different priorities, backgrounds, and educational journeys compared to traditional students. Despite institutional resource constraints and leadership turnover in higher education, Cornett emphasized the importance of qualitative research to capture students' lived experiences beyond mere statistics. This discussion highlights the crucial intersection of financial wellness, student success metrics, and the ethical considerations of research that genuinely benefits the students it studies.
ZW Taylor:
Allyson, could you start by telling me a bit about your background and what you’re currently doing in your role?
Allyson Cornett:
I first joined the Trellis team in 2017 to work on a longitudinal qualitative study of food insecurity among college students. It was really serendipitous—almost a perfect match. Trellis needed someone with deep qualitative experience, and I was in grad school at the University of North Texas, where I was studying applied anthropology and behavioral and community health within a public health program.
Back then, I had just finished up a food environment analysis for the City of Austin, wrapped up a qualitative study of mobile food pantry recipients in Denton County, and completed an interview-based study with University of North Texas (UNT) students that led to UNT implementing its first on-campus food pantry. By the time I joined the Trellis team, I had been conducting research on college students, specifically on the college hunger crisis and its impact on their daily lives and academics, for just over two years. Joining Trellis seemed like a great opportunity to apply that experience on a broader scale.
As someone who experienced food and housing insecurity as an undergraduate, I was—and still am—really passionate about basic needs work. Over time, my focus expanded beyond food insecurity to include all students' essential needs, such as access to safe housing, childcare, health care, transportation, and mental health services.
In the eight years I’ve been with Trellis—now Trellis Strategies—I earned my master’s degree and gradually took on more responsibilities, serving as the principal investigator for dozens of research projects before moving into the position I hold today. In my current role as Director of Research, I’m fortunate to oversee mixed-methods research projects for institutions and organizations nationwide, which often include focus groups, interviews, and surveys, while also leading a diverse team of talented researchers.
ZW Taylor:
I think for a lot of people outside the U.S. context, your organization is particularly interesting in its mission and work, as well as how long it has existed. Trellis has witnessed and survived many changes in education.
You mentioned that your career at Trellis—now Trellis Strategies—has spanned eight years. How much has changed in just that time? And Trellis goes back well before that. Can you describe the organization? What exactly does it do? It’s not a higher education institution, and it’s not a for-profit company—it seems to fall somewhere in between. What are its primary goals, and how does your team work with schools?
Allyson Cornett:
Trellis Strategies is a nonprofit, non-governmental research and technical assistance organization dedicated to advancing higher education and strengthening the workforce in the United States. We assist all types of higher education institutions and related organizations, including think tanks, but we specialize in supporting open-access institutions.
Our work focuses on helping these institutions better support what we call 'modern learners'—today’s college students—who often have different priorities, backgrounds, and learner journeys compared to traditional college students.
As you mentioned, we’ve been around for over 40 years, building deep expertise in higher education research. Our primary focus is on student access and success through the lens of financial wellness. This means we closely examine the role that student finances play in accessing, persisting in, and achieving economic mobility through postsecondary education.
Within Trellis Strategies, I lead our Qualitative and Learner Insights team, which primarily conducts qualitative and survey-based research projects for institutions and governmental agencies across the country.
ZW Taylor:
You mentioned financial wellness, and I know that here in the United States, in early 2025—if you’re reading this interview in the future—there’s a growing movement to prioritize and even re-prioritize personal finance education. Many states have passed legislation requiring some form of financial wellness or personal finance education in high schools, with the most recent one doing so just recently.
Trellis has been focused on financial wellness for a long time. What was the motivation behind making it a core focus? Does that overlap with student success? What’s your perspective on that?
Allyson Cornett:
That’s a really great question. Trellis has been serving U.S.-based higher education institutions and students for over 40 years. Over the past two decades, especially as the average cost of college has repeatedly risen alongside the cost of living, students have had to rethink how they pay for college.
Students today are borrowing more than any previous generation, accumulating higher levels of debt. This makes it even more critical for them to see a return on their investment, as they face increasing financial pressure to cover both tuition and essential daily needs. While the cost of college continues to rise, financial aid has not kept pace, placing significant financial strain on students. This can create a ripple effect, leading to financial stress, anxiety, basic needs insecurity, and, unfortunately for some students, stopping out of college without earning a degree.
These financial pressures, combined with rapidly changing student demographics, means that institutions need to better understand students’ day-to-day realities—from admission to matriculation, their experiences while in college, and their post-graduation outcomes. Recognizing these challenges, we knew we had to expand our work to take a more holistic approach to student wellness.
Trellis supports higher education institutions by providing data-driven insights, strategic consulting, and partnerships that enhance student success and financial wellness. We help institutions strengthen their recruitment, enrollment, and learner experience, which ultimately leads to higher retention and graduation rates. Our work is rooted in the belief that education is the cornerstone of individual economic mobility and community prosperity. No student should have to abandon their degree—or struggle to make it through college—simply because they lack the necessary financial resources to pay for school.
ZW Taylor:
Agreed. I also appreciate how you mentioned the modern college student earlier. Specifically, the changing demographics in the United States. The demographic shift really began in 2008 and 2009. That was a time of severe economic downturn, and many young people did not have children. Now, in 2025, we’re reflecting on the passage of time and recognizing these changes. As Allyson previously mentioned, today’s modern learner faces shifting demographics. Many colleges are no longer primarily recruiting the traditional 18-to-24-year-old student. Instead, they are focusing on working adults, single parents, international students, and others with varying needs.
In the U.S., capitalism is so pervasive that almost everything we do—businesses, schools, even individuals—operates with the bottom line in mind. However, we don’t talk about money openly. Financial matters are taboo in American culture. While the economy is frequently discussed in the news, personal finance and financial wellness are not common topics of conversation among individuals. It’s ironic that, despite the importance of financial wellness and personal finance, especially given these demographic shifts, society does not openly address it.
That’s why I believe the work your organization does is crucial—it brings attention to this important issue that has significant impacts, yet we don't often discuss it openly. And, ironically, student financial wellness may be the key driver of student success. If students have their basic financial needs met, they are better able to focus on their studies, commute, work part-time, or manage other responsibilities. Unfortunately, for many students, this is not the case.
This brings me to the importance of financial wellness for students—helping them manage money, understand debt, credit, and other fundamental concepts. It’s clear that financial wellness is integral to student success. Retention, as you mentioned, is a key metric for colleges and universities. How many students are we retaining? But what other metrics does your organization focus on when it comes to college student success? What else falls under the umbrella of college student success?
Allyson Cornett:
At Trellis Strategies, we define student success as a multi-faceted concept that encompasses not only academic achievement but also the overall well-being and holistic development of students. Our approach to student success involves understanding and addressing the various challenges that students face, from financial stress and insecurity to basic needs and security, mental health, and career readiness. We believe that true student success is achieved when students are able to thrive socially, emotionally, and are well-prepared for their future careers.
One of the key ways we measure student success indicators is through our annual Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS). The SFWS is a self-reported online survey that has been designed and implemented annually by Trella Strategies since 2018. Since then, over 3.8 million students have been surveyed at 300 unique institutions across 37 states in the U.S. Our most recent implementation, which was fielded in October and November of 2024, captured the attitudes, perspectives, and self-reported financial behaviors of over 54,000 students from 104 colleges and universities in 27 states. This included 49 four-year universities and 55 two-year colleges.
The survey, which is completely free for participating institutions, is part of our community investment work. The Student Financial Wellness Survey provides valuable insights into the various challenges that students often encounter, including financial insecurity, food insecurity, and housing insecurity. It also measures the impact of financial stress on academic performance and mental health. Additionally, it gauges how supported students feel by their institution, whether they believe their college or university understands their financial situation, and whether they would recommend their school to others.
By collecting and analyzing this data, we help institutions across the country better understand their students’ experiences. In addition, something we've been doing for the past few years, which has been really interesting, is offering a follow-up study called Student Financial Wellness Survey Outcomes Analysis. This supplemental analysis connects students' SFWS responses to student success metrics 12 months later, revealing associations between indicators of student financial distress and student success. When we provide these reports back to institutions, it helps them identify pivotal areas for intervention and substantiate support for student financial wellness initiatives, enhancing student outcomes by allowing institutions to make targeted, data-informed strategies.
In addition to the Student Financial Wellness Survey, we also have a suite of surveys to support student success. These include instruments to understand why students leave higher education without a degree or “stop out”, and how institutions can engage these stop-out students. We also offer customer experience and campus climate surveys that assess students' perceptions of various areas of campus life while identifying barriers or pain points that colleges can address to improve the student experience.
ZW Taylor:
I really appreciate that a lot of the understanding of student financial wellness and its intersection with all these college success metrics is very quantitative. There's so much you can quantify. Even experiences like food or housing insecurity can be measured in terms of the number of months or days someone has slept on someone else's couch, or how many meals they skipped, or how much money they have for an emergency. That's all numerical and quantitative. However, what you're also doing is measuring college student success through the students' experiences qualitatively. And I think a lot of times, that is completely missing.
It’s almost a cliché when college students say they don’t have the best experience and make comments like, “I feel like a number.” There's no human connection or interest in someone’s lived experience in college. That’s something that really needs to be emphasized and focused on. I’m so glad your organization does that because you’re trying to capture both the quantitative and qualitative aspects to shine a light on the actual experience. And that’s what truly tells the story of persistence, retention, and graduation. Those metrics are just the surface-level numbers; the real stories lie behind them.
Too often, organizations focus on the numbers and then either feel pleased or displeased with the results, but meanwhile, their students are saying, "We feel like a number." That overemphasis on the numbers might not be the best, most humanistic way of approaching student success.
Sometimes, you know, a student might spend a year and a half at a community college, have a great experience, and end up transferring. Maybe it takes them two or three years to get their bachelor’s degree down the road with a 2.5 GPA. Some might argue that isn’t the ideal student or that they haven’t been successful, but for that student, that’s their version of college success. For many students, especially those from first-gen backgrounds, enrolling in just one community college class can be the most success their family has ever seen.
That’s why the holistic approach is so important, and I really appreciate how your organization embraces that. It's not just about the numbers, but about the journey and the lived experiences along the way. You know what I mean?
Allyson Cornett:
Absolutely, and that point you made really resonates with me. When we look at predictors of retention, GPA often comes up as one of the most significant factors. But that GPA alone doesn’t tell the full story. It doesn’t capture whether that student was struggling due to external circumstances, like having to work full-time, caring for a child, or navigating the complexities of being a first-generation college student. A low GPA can also reflect a lack of understanding of how to navigate the higher education landscape, rather than an academic inability or lack of effort.
That’s where the gap is—looking at the hard data without considering the context of students' lives. When you combine that quantitative data with the stories and voices of students, it adds a whole new layer of understanding. It humanizes the experience and reminds us that students are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Instead, we can really grasp the challenges they face and begin to meet them where they are, rather than trying to fit everyone into a rigid mold of what success "should" look like in higher education.
By centering student voices, we get a clearer picture of the factors affecting their success, and we can make more meaningful interventions to support them in ways that are realistic and grounded in their lived experiences.
ZW Taylor:
Totally. Yeah, I've told this story before, but I was put on academic probation at my community college before I even enrolled. I had not taken Algebra I or Algebra II or college writing and so on. The community college website said 100% admission, and I was like, "Great, even I can get in there." I mean, I was a total burnout in high school, not a great student, but I get this letter saying, "We cannot fully admit you. We need to place you on this probation status until you've completed these steps." That alone, for me, was like not even being admitted to a 100% admissions institution, but it still felt like success. At least there was an effort there. Then, you know, that effort starts to snowball, and you start to find some community, and all of a sudden, maybe you do achieve that kind of model of success. But it's going to look different for everybody. I mean, everyone's different.
And speaking of difference, here's my segue. You have a very different relationship with higher ed organizations, and lots of other countries' government organizations and higher ed institutions are kind of hand-in-hand, and it's a very insulated environment in some ways. I'm speaking mainly from some Western European countries, where lots of the readership of this journal are from countries that have free higher education, for instance, and it's government-supported. So those relationships between institutions and government are really tight, and there's not a whole lot of third-party extracurricular activity with other types of organizations who may help the institution be more successful in some ways. Can you describe—it's a unique relationship—but describe how Trellis partners with other higher ed institutions? What does that partnership look like, and then what are some of the successes and some of the work that you do to help schools be more successful in serving students?
Allyson Cornett:
You're spot on. We have a really unique and, I think, wonderful relationship with higher education institutions. We've established strong and impactful partnerships with more than 300 institutions of higher education across the country. These collaborations are really built on a foundation of mutual trust and a shared commitment to enhancing student success, institutional effectiveness, and supporting modern learners throughout their postsecondary journey, from application to graduation.
We work closely with open-access institutions, private colleges, two-year and four-year schools—really all across the spectrum—to provide them with research services, strategic consulting, technical assistance, and tailored solutions that address their unique challenges. This includes our comprehensive survey projects and research initiatives.
Our partnerships extend beyond research to process improvement and consulting, and we collaborate with institutions on program evaluation, policy development, and strategic planning to enhance recruitment, enrollment, and learner experiences. Recently, we worked with a private historically Black university to develop a new strategic plan. We did this through an environmental scan involving their students, employees, alumni, and stakeholders in the community. We then paired these research efforts with tailored strategic consulting and technical assistance to help them implement that plan. They’ve already disseminated it to campus stakeholders, which has been really rewarding.
We also partnered with a large community college system to improve their workflows around academic advising and ensure student engagement in those processes. But overall, our partnerships with higher education institutions are really designed to dismantle barriers to student success, enhance economic mobility for students, and foster community prosperity through education. By leveraging our expertise and resources, we help institutions transform policies, programs, and practices to better support their students and achieve their goals.
ZW Taylor:
Agreed. But that comes with a serious time investment, financial investment, and human resource investment. Partnering with an institution, especially in the Australian context, is usually initially seen very skeptically and pessimistically. Questions like, "What do you want with our institution? Do you want data? Do you want money? Are you trying to sell us a contract?" can make things get very fuzzy and uncomfortable pretty quickly. This is part of the more capitalist system of higher education in the U.S., where a lot of times, colleges and universities are skeptical of outside organizations.
Talk a little bit about the challenges in collaboration. I mean, I already know that a lot of what you do is at no cost or supported in other ways, but there are still challenges. I mean, we’re getting into bureaucracy, gosh darn it.
Allyson Cornett:
Collaborating with any organization, but especially colleges and universities from a research and consulting perspective, presents unique challenges and opportunities. And I think the top three — I’m going to limit it to three — that we often encounter at Trellis Strategies would be, first and foremost, as a data person, data accessibility and quality. One of our primary challenges is obtaining accurate and comprehensive data from institutions. We know that many colleges and universities are under-resourced and might have difficulty pulling this data together or have incomplete or outdated records. I met with an institution yesterday; they were transferring their data from one system to another, and they couldn’t access anything during this period. There are a lot of different challenges that could pop up around accessing data and the quality of that data. But on the other hand, ensuring that we have accurate and complete data for our research and quantitative analysis is critical for us to be able to draw meaningful insights and feel comfortable with those conclusions.
ZW Taylor:
The era of big data, with lots and lots of what could look like an Excel spreadsheet, in the gigabyte size, is now upon us. And I feel like every other week there’s some sort of cybersecurity breach, data loss in universities, or some issue where we don’t even know who our students are because we lost a file, or we lost track of who moved on with access to a login and now they're not responding to their email. There are lots of issues. I think that’s a specific element that scholars and academics need to think about: as institutional budgets keep getting trimmed and there’s more and more of a need for people to be data- and tech-savvy, they need to be able to work with large data files—not just ones where you can, as I previously mentioned, open up an Excel file and move some fields. It’s bigger than that, way bigger. Not only is the data bigger, but all the systems it’s connected to are so integral to college and university functions right now. That’s got to be a collaborative issue, not only between institutions and organizations like you, but internally as well. Colleges and universities need better communication strategies, more shared data between offices, and better use of platforms like CRMs. I just want to amplify that because I can understand how this creates a barrier to collaboration. What else has been a struggle?
Allyson Cornett:
In that same thread, resource constraints in general are a challenge. We know that a lot of institutions face resource constraints, including funding, staff, and time. Not only are students experiencing time scarcity—having to prioritize their tasks with limited time to do so—but faculty, staff, and leadership at institutions are often having to make the same decisions. This lack of resources can impact the scope, scale, and feasibility of research and consulting projects, which requires us to be nimble and adaptive.
Lastly, securing institutional buy-in and engagement is crucial. Gaining the commitment and active participation of institutional stakeholders can be a real challenge. Institutions have competing priorities, layers of bureaucracy, and varying departmental needs. They also face limited resources and internal resistance to change. These challenges can be overcome by building trust and demonstrating the value of our research, which is essential for securing their engagement.
ZW Taylor:
One thing I’m not sure is unique to us, but I know it’s common in executive leadership today, is that average CEO and presidential tenures are getting shorter and shorter. It didn’t used to be this way, but now the pipeline is smaller, with fewer people willing to take on these roles. The salaries go up because leaders want to make their splash and then leave. I’m not sure what the average college president’s tenure is now, but it can’t be more than five or six years, if that.
If you think the revolving door is an issue at the top, imagine middle management in higher education. People are in and out in just three to four years. And often, especially in the U.S. context, moving up requires going somewhere else. There's less internal promotion, where someone can start at an organization and work their way up. These days, with new leadership, people often bring in their own teams, and those spots are filled by people who haven't spent long at the school. There’s nowhere to go, and the only way to advance is to move out.
That creates a challenge in education, which is such a relationship-driven, humanistic industry. If you don’t build trust and relationships, it’s hard to get anything done. But it’s tough when people aren’t around for long enough to build those connections. Have you experienced this as well? Not just resistance to change, but the difficulty of establishing relationships because of the revolving door?
Allyson Cornett:
That’s exactly it—many institutions experience high turnover. I've had to deal with this at almost every possible level within colleges and universities. When we’re collaborating with an institution on a series of survey or other research projects in place, the president may change—sometimes to an interim president, sometimes to a completely new president. Each president operates like a CEO, bringing in different priorities and perspectives. This means that trust has to be earned each time. This turnover doesn't just affect executives; it impacts employees at all levels.
When advisors change every semester or year, it creates a jarring and disruptive environment for students. This lack of stability and continuity can undermine the smooth educational experience that students deserve.
ZW Taylor:
I agree with you. It’s a deeply hypocritical situation when leadership rhetoric promotes student success, but their actions reflect the opposite, especially with constant turnover at the leadership level. It's incredibly frustrating to see how community colleges and regional open-access institutions, which are so vital to student success, are treated as stepping stones for executive careers. Students are left to deal with the instability, which doesn’t reflect the leadership's supposed commitment to their success.
As for ensuring research is student-centered, I think it's crucial to approach it from a place of empathy and practicality. We always aim to make sure that the research and surveys we conduct don’t burden students unnecessarily. In fact, we prioritize minimizing student involvement to what's essential. For example, we aim to make sure our surveys are not time-consuming, and if we need student input, we ensure it’s clear that their responses will directly influence initiatives aimed at improving their experiences.
We also make it a point to ensure that the research we undertake is collaborative, rather than exploitative. That means we listen to the voices of students throughout the research process, not just in collecting data but also in interpreting it. Student panels, focus groups, and student representatives on advisory boards are ways that we make sure students’ voices are part of the strategic planning and decision-making process.
Finally, it’s all about setting up systems where students feel empowered, not burdened. If we’re conducting research on student financial wellness, for example, it’s not just about gathering data—it’s about using that data to create real solutions that ease financial stress. And it’s crucial that we keep communication open with the students so they understand how their participation will help make meaningful changes.
In short, it's about ensuring the process is as unobtrusive as possible, while also remaining transparent and committed to using the findings to directly improve the student experience. Let me know if you want to dive deeper into any part of this process!
Allyson Cornett:
We work with institutions, but the goal of everything we do at Trellis Strategies is to improve access and success for students. We center students through several approaches, including inclusive research design, adhering to best research practices, being culturally sensitive, and committing to accessibility in our research products. Making sure that when a student is taking an online survey, it can be read by a screen reader. Conducting cognitive interviews and testing our protocols to ensure that questions are understood by our target demographic.
Especially with the Student Financial Wellness Survey, where we add new items and revise existing questions every year to evolve the instrument. We'll recruit a few students at an institution, compensate them for their time, and then have them sit through and review the instrument with us. Although a survey question or a research design might be understood by master’s and PhD-level researchers, that doesn’t necessarily mean that students are going to interpret that the same way.
Lastly, we're always trying to continuously improve our research methodologies by engaging with stakeholders, including students, to better understand their needs and challenges. When we do these large-scale national research projects, or even when we do a one-on-one project with an institution, we'll provide them with my information—my phone number, my email—and if they have questions or feedback about the instrument or protocol, we encourage them to let us know. We will get emails and calls from students with suggestions like, "Hey, I noticed you had this question worded this way. What if you tried doing this instead?" That's been really interesting and kind of cool to see that engagement.
ZW Taylor:
It is that open line of communication and understanding that it's important to send. That we are trying to help you, and that time is money. Your time is valuable, so we're going to honor your time, and what we're going to do is make sure that everything, all the data, and everything we're doing is going to honor that time and make it worth your while. I remember as an undergraduate student, you know, doing studies and filling out surveys. I never got any follow-up. I don't even know what happened with any of my information. It was kind of like... at a certain point, I was trying to be a good research participant, trying to, you know, if no one does the survey, there's no change to be made because there's no data to inform that change. At a certain point, you're like, "Crying out loud, I mean, we gotta at least tell students why we're doing the things, make the lines of communication open." Especially when you're coming from, you know, an email address that is not an institutional one, right?
I mean, you’re kind of seen as an outsider, but I think the tone of your messaging and also, you mentioned accessibility, which is near and dear to my heart, but it's like taking that extra step to make sure that all students can access the information—that kids with disabilities who need that additional information or that additional tech check before the survey is being sent out. Not like that's lost on them. A lot of students, I think, encounter communication where it's like, "This is too much, it's not accessible, I can't access half of it, I don't know where these hyperlinks go." But if it's built inclusively, it's like, "Oh, they actually took the time to think about what I might need," and I'd be happy to do the survey. I'd be happy to do the follow-up, and by the way, I wanna make 5 bucks or my time is gonna be compensated in some way. So all good there. And I think then kind of moving on to, if you have the data, you're doing inclusive communication, you're working with as many students as possible, open lines of communication—what are some of those student-driven findings in your research? You can go with financial wellness or just like whatever excites you about what you found, but give me a couple of the high-watermarks in your research that you think are going to move the needle or inform the field going forward.
Allyson Cornett:
That’s really hard to choose. I've been doing this for a while, and we've uncovered a lot of significant insights through our work with students. But I think one of the most immediate things that comes to mind is the fluidity of basic needs security. In that first study I worked on at Trellis, which was published as a report called Study on Empty, we tracked 72 students once a month for nine months and did interviews with them every month to better understand the interplay of student finances and their academic performance. Through this study, we found that half of these students—36 of the 72—had experienced low food security or very low food security at least once over the course of the study. This occurred at least once during that nine-month period.
This was one of the first studies to really reveal a more nuanced and fluid pattern of collegiate food insecurity than what was commonly understood at the time. A sudden shift in financial stability, like changes in their employment, financial aid, or medical issues, could all degrade or improve student food security. We saw students’ food security decrease during the study 30 times and improve 50 times. We also found that generally, this was true for financial security as well. Students were often more financially stable right after they get that financial aid disbursement at the beginning of the semester, when they get their loan or grant packages. But they would often be really struggling by the middle of the semester or by the end of the term.
ZW Taylor:
You know, the long-term view of some of those projects really only comes through with an investment in going back to what we talked about earlier—the actual student narrative, the student story. Instead of the kind of fly-by-night research that a lot of folks do, which is gathering data one time and then drawing conclusions from there, it’s that dedication to following up with students and actually seeing what the impact is on their lives. I know when working with a lot of institutions on financial wellness, many schools are, in some ways, scrambling to find connections between the work they do, the financial wellness programming they facilitate, and student outcomes. I keep thinking to myself, there’s no long-term view here. There’s no sense of how what we're doing today can be measured later. If we start building relationships with students, we can get such a richer understanding of what's actually going on. A lot of folks don’t take that approach, which can throw a wrench into our interview protocol. But, I mean, why do you think student success research isn't more longitudinal? From your perspective, why aren’t we playing the long game more often?
Allyson Cornett:
It really comes down to a few factors. One, there are some major players in this space in the U.S.—large for-profit organizations for whom this type of work is their bread and butter. When some of these organizations conduct research with institutions, it’s often a point-in-time snapshot. Then they move on to the next institution and the next pool of data. I also think this has a lot to do with resources and capacity at the institution. We’ve talked about changes in leadership, where one president may be invested in the study, but the next president might have completely different priorities. This is part of the reason why more studies aren’t longitudinal in nature.
It’s also a cost issue. We were really fortunate to have had external funding when we conducted that food insecurity study back in 2017. This study ended up having 499 interviews, and students were compensated for each interview—I believe it was up to $50 per interview. That’s a substantial investment that many institutions and organizations really can’t justify or cover. So, it’s a multifaceted issue.
I do think there’s so much value in longitudinal work. Timing can significantly influence results if you’re not careful. Imagine a student transfers from a community college to a four-year university in the fall semester where they might face drastically higher costs of attendance, living expenses, or a limited ability to work. These rising expenses and uncertain incomes can result in difficult decisions – do they pay tuition or rent? If that student is struggles significantly, they might decide to take a break for a semester or not return at all. If you conduct a study on basic needs in the spring versus the fall, you might see an inflated sense that everything is okay. Issues like food and housing insecurity or homelessness might appear lower in the spring simply because those struggling students have already left.
ZW Taylor:
I completely agree with you. There’s a real disconnect between the way data is used at colleges and universities versus how it’s used in private industry, especially in terms of long-term thinking and tracking. In the private sector, data-savvy individuals who understand programming languages or even Excel and SQL are highly valued, and they’re often the ones driving innovation and decision-making. However, in higher education, there seems to be a significant gap in that area, particularly within institutional research (IR) offices. A lot of colleges and universities are experiencing this “brain drain” in terms of data expertise, and it’s affecting the depth and quality of research that gets done internally.
Like you said, when research is done based on a single semester or a snapshot in time, it’s not truly research in the sense of understanding long-term trends. It may inform immediate decisions, but those decisions often don’t have lasting effects because the students in question are already gone by the time the data gets analyzed and reported. It’s almost like there’s a lag between research and action, and that means many students miss out on the help they might have needed while they were still enrolled.
You’re right—there’s such a huge opportunity for institutional research to play a more proactive role in tracking student success over time. It’s a bit baffling that universities don’t prioritize doing their own longitudinal studies, especially given the importance of understanding how students are actually progressing through their academic careers, including factors that affect retention and graduation rates. External surveys like NSSE and CCSSE can be helpful, but they only give a partial picture, and they don’t provide the deep, internal understanding that schools could gain from their own ongoing studies.
It’s also a bit surprising that more universities don’t integrate researchers into their internal operations. At many institutions, the IR folks are not faculty members, and they’re not doing the kind of research that helps the institution understand its own students. Instead, their role is often more focused on accreditation or applying for grants, which, while important, doesn’t always help answer the day-to-day questions that would improve student outcomes.
If more institutions could establish a culture of ongoing, internally-driven longitudinal research, they’d be able to make better decisions about supporting students. And that’s something that could really transform how universities understand and respond to the challenges their students face. It’s definitely a gap in the system right now.
Allyson Cornett:
I relate to that. Previously, we only hired locally in the Central Texas area where we are based, but since the pandemic, we shifted to mostly remote work. Our research team is now entirely remote, which allows us to hire talent from across the country. In the last few years, we've brought in several individuals with backgrounds in Institutional Research. While IR plays a crucial role, as you mentioned, sometimes there are limited opportunities to bridge the gap between research and practice. For example, conducting the same survey semester after semester, and year after year, without the ability to apply those insights to policy or practice can make it feel like you're working in a silo.
ZW Taylor:
Yeah, so odd. I mean, the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting a different result, right? I mean, that's the definition right there. All right, wrapping up and looking ahead. And you can speed through this. I know you've been there, you've worked your way up, and you're in a bigger seat now, which is exciting. What are your goals? What do you want to prioritize? Maybe there are things you can nudge Trellis in the right direction on. And then, maybe some organizational goals too. So, if you want to go personal and organizational, I’d love to hear both.
Allyson Cornett:
Let me start with our organization and then I'll switch to my personal goals. So, you know, right now, I think the landscape of higher education in our country is rapidly evolving, and there's a lot of opportunity for Trellis Strategies to continue to serve colleges and universities with what I like to think of as adaptive and nimble research and technical assistance services. We are dedicated to providing low and no-cost services to postsecondary institutions, especially open-access colleges and universities, that allows them to center learner insights, like those we glean from our research projects, and helps them transform that into their work, program policies, and decision-making. We're also really focusing right now on the development of easy-to-use instruments that lower the burden of administration and also ease the survey fatigue students across the country are experiencing.
I think that's also one of my personal goals. We're seeing kind of a double-edged sword right now. We're collecting more data on students than ever before, which is great, but at the same time, we're also asking students to give us a lot of information and to invest time completing these projects, but what are they getting out of it? That's a big ethical issue for me. I want to make sure that our research not only centers students but that they are actually getting something out of our research.
One of the things that we've done to implement that into practice in our Student Financial Wellness survey is at the end of each survey, there's a landing page for that specific institution. This landing page connects students with resources available in their community, and it's kind of like a cheat sheet for the student that they can use to connect with assistance. Since we're asking about their finances, food security, housing security, homelessness, mental health, and other potentially sensitive subjects, I want to make sure that we're providing students with access to the resources they need.
I think another goal of mine, and we're already working on this with a few organizations, is to do our best to stop siloing data. We have a lot of data—hundreds of thousands of student responses—from the Students Financial Wellness survey, and there are other organizations across the country that do similar studies. We're working right now to investigate having one central spot, a basic needs research hub, where students, practitioners, faculty, or anyone really interested in better understanding basic needs insecurity among students can come to get all that information in one place, instead of having to navigate different sources.
Finally, it’s important to continue thinking critically about how to get the information that institutions need to make informed decisions without overwhelming students with surveys. That’s a huge priority for me and our organization, and it’s a recurring concern with the institutions we collaborate with. As a field, we are over-surveying students, and we need to find a more intentional and mindful approach when requesting their time, and potentially, the emotional burden of sharing their experiences with us.
ZW Taylor:
Thank you so much for sharing these insights. It’s clear that you're deeply committed to both the ethical and practical aspects of research, and I appreciate how focused you are on balancing the needs of institutions with the well-being of students. The work you're doing around data integration and connecting students to resources is really inspiring, and it's great to hear how you're pushing for more intentional and meaningful engagement with the people you're collecting data from. Your approach to reducing survey fatigue and making sure students actually benefit from participating is a crucial aspect of responsible research. I look forward to seeing how these efforts evolve and how they continue to make an impact on higher education. Thanks again for taking the time to talk today—I’ve really enjoyed hearing about your work and your vision for the future.
To learn more about Allyson's work and Trellis Strategies, visit https://www.trellisstrategies.org/
